


There Are No Absolutes

by theonetryingtolive



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:27:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29341302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonetryingtolive/pseuds/theonetryingtolive
Summary: There was not a single thing he wouldn’t give for you to close your eyes again and erase his presence from your memory.
Relationships: Lew "Chuckler" Juergens/Reader





	There Are No Absolutes

Lew stumbled inside the stifling hot tent and tried to find his cot in the dark. As he searched for the empty space, his hand landed on a soft body and he tensed up, his heart speeding up. For what felt like forever he didn’t move, he stood rooted to the spot, cheeks rapidly heating up. The warm body stirred and he pulled his hand back and made a shushing noise, as if by doing so he could erase his faux pas. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, knowing full well he wouldn’t be apologizing if it was any of the others. But that was the problem. 

“Chuckler?” You whispered in reply, moving your hand in the dark to try and locate him. Your hand grazed the fabric of his shirt but he jumped back, a strange noise getting stuck in his throat. “Lew?”

“Go back to sleep,” he murmured. There was not a single thing he wouldn’t give for you to close your eyes again and erase his presence from your memory. “Please.”

That inexplicable tightness in his chest had only grown more uncomfortable as time went by, but it hadn’t really been until the last battle that it began to hurt until he was unable to breathe. You’d been rushing down a slope, bullets whizzing past you, when he’d known. And then the truth had become unbearable. He’d started wrapping a piece of cloth around his palm, in an attempt to disguise the grey mark that heralded his downfall. Because he knew that he would never find any respite from that tightness, not in all the absolute truths of the universe. 

“Are you injured?” You asked, sitting up and feeling the spot beside your cot for a pack of matches. 

You were ever the healer, ever the flickering hope in hell. He knew he shouldn’t be talking, that he was too drunk to explain why your presence did the very opposite of what you intended. Why he had been avoiding your touch ever since the first day. Instead, a wild thing took a hold of him and he sputtered out a harsh truth. “I can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending they’re you.”

There was a sharp inhale of breath but he was unable to discern if it was yours or if one of the others was awake and listening. You lit a light, and he was struck mute by the glow of it on your skin. When you reached out to touch him, he curled his hands into fists and turned away from you. You blew out the light when he was sitting on his cot. 

\--

The next morning found Chuckler face down on his cot, groaning and trying to will the thumping in his head away. Hoosier and Leckie were not helping with all the noise they were making, but he was too tired to tell them to bicker somewhere else. 

He felt a small hand on the back of his neck, and he reluctantly lifted his head off the pillow. He grimaced when he turned around and looked at you. You waited for him to sit up and took his hand. He felt blood rushing to his head and for a moment was too dazed to react when you took off your shirt. The conversation between Hoosier and Leckie died down and he swallowed a lump in his throat. 

Wordlessly, you placed his hand on your hip, in the exact same spot he had touched the night before. A flurry of colours had blossomed during the night on your skin, and when he looked down at his hand, he realised that his own soulmark had changed. There were lines of colour in a dazzling pattern up to his elbow. 

Lew looked up at you, and a wave of happiness washed over him. You smiled back at him, and cupped his cheek with your hand. Lew leaned into the touch and sighed with relief.


End file.
